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De Jong: campaign against EU economic ‘six-pack’

19 April 2011

De Jong: campaign against EU economic ‘six-pack’

The SP in the European Parliament will be campaigning against the EU’s crisis package. Dubbed the ‘economic six-pack’, the package was approved today in the EP Economic Committee. SP Euro-MP Dennis de Jong said that the six-pack ‘will only lead to austerity and wage restraint, and the Netherlands will get nothing from it but a massive hangover. Brussels should keep its talons off our pensions, wages and public spending.’

A controversial issue in relation to the proposals are the so-called economic indicators, which will see the EU intervening emphatically with the extent of public spending on, amongst other things, health care and education, as well as with wage levels and the housing market. Describing the six-pack as having ‘a totally one-sided focus’ De Jong said that ‘up until yesterday a number of social measures were included in the package: low unemployment, narrow income differentials, and investment in education and research. This right-wing European Parliament, however, left only the neoliberal proposals intact.’

De Jong agrees with the trade unions that the package represents an infringement of the freedom to negotiate wages and conditions. ‘It isn’t Brussels but the employers and workers who should be discussing wage levels and working conditions,’ De Jong said. Specific protection for trade union rights and the right to strike were removed from the package by the right-wing parties.